Shukaku
Shukaku, also known as One-Tail and also Sand Demon Tanuki, is one of the Tailed Beasts. Personality Shukaku is characterised as a wild and short-tempered individual, and often speaks in a bombastic and incoherent manner, giving it the demeanour of a drunken madman. He expresses great pride in his own abilities, especially his sealing techniques and defences. Shukaku harbours a bitter grudge towards Kurama due to the latter's beliefs that the tailed beasts' strength is measured by the number of tails, and thus Kurama views Shukaku as the weakest. Because of this, Shukaku will find any opportunity to surpass its arrogant rival, even if for that he kills his Jinchuriki. Stemming from this, Shukaku can be quite childish and boastful, often bragging. Shukaku's hatred towards ponies led him to spark fear in Strongpaw, reminding him that if he goes into a deep sleep, the tanuki would possess his body and murder all ponies, resulting in Strongpaw's developing insomnia. Shukaku once had that similar attitude toward Grain Wave, but when the jinchūriki treated the tanuki as an equal, an impressed Shukaku complimented him by comparing him to the Lord of Order. During the War, Shukaku eventually saw Strongpaw in a similar light, being reminded of Grain Wave. Skills As a tailed beast, One-Tail possesses a large quantity of chakra. He has also the ability to control his jinchūriki whenever they sleep, leading to his host to develop a special kind of insomnia thanks to the seal used. Shukaku has great physical strength while using his tail. Shukaku can use both earth and wind energy, being able to combine them to use magnet nature and is the only tailed beast which can use cursed seals from his markings and infuse them into the Spiraling Sphere to create a magnet nature version of it, which was powerful enough to restrain Hepheus' shadow. Shukaku's most notable ability is his sand manipulation, using it as an effective weapon and shield. Since his whole body is completely made of sand, the tanuki can ignore most damage that would otherwise be detrimental. Taking pride in its motto of absolute defence, Shukaku's sand is durable enough to block most attacks. He is also able to use a sealing magic, using sand and the marking of his body, which gives off a magnetic field to bind its targets. He can also can rapidly fire wind bullets with enough force to level entire forests. Likewise, he can combine his wind abilities with Strongpaw's sand in order to produce a mass of fast-moving sand bullets. Family Description in the Saga Background One-Tail and the other Tailed Beasts first came into being when the Lord of Order divided Ten-Tails' energy in nine parts and then he gave each a name. Over the centuries, One-Tail developed an hatred towards the Lord of Order's other creations due to the way they treated him and his brethren. At one point, he is captured by the pony-phanters and sealed inside a Jinchuriki. Shukaku's first jinchūriki was named Grain Wave, who was locked away in a dungeon, and was kept under constant guard. Over time, the citizens of the oasis came to believe that Shukaku himself was a living ghost. Despite the animosity the pony-panthers showed for Shukaku and his host, the elderly jinchuriki held no ill-will towards the tanuki nor the pony-panthers, viewing him as an equal and was content as long as Shukaku hadn't forgotten his name. Shukaku eventually came to appreciate Grain Wave and would later remember the words he imparted to him: that someday somepony would appear in the world to teach him about the heart and acceptance. Many centuries later, when Sand Jewel became pregnant with Strongpaw, her husband, Chief Sandstorm, had Shukaku be sealed into Strongpaw while he was still in the womb because, out of his compatibility with the tailed beast. Before Sand Jewel died after giving birth, she passionately told her son that she would protect him, and, according to her husband, her love seeped into the sand and was noted to form his automatic defence. However, Strongpaw couldn't properly control Shukaku's powers, killing or injuring several pony-panthers by accident. Deemed a failure, his father chose to test his son one last time, ordering the latter's uncle to assassinate him and also tell him that his mother never loved him. Strongpaw failed the test, fully releasing the rampaging Shukaku, to which Sandstorm eventually used his Gold Dust to subdue the tanuki. Star Knight and the Nine-Tailed Fox In "One-Tail Awakes", he tries to take over Chief Strongpaw's body after he is hit by Oogie Boogie's sleeping powder. In "Shukaku, the Demon Tanuki", Shukaku is able to take control completly over Chief Strongpaw when he falls asleep and battles Twilight, Blue, Spike and the Light Guard, taking the upperhand. When Star tries to convince Chief Strongpaw to regain the control, Shukaku interveens and threats to kill Star just to show Nine-Tails who is the stronger, but he is stopped by Chief Strongpaw who then is able to manifest his body on Shukaku's so Star could wake him up. Star is able to do that and, once Chief Strongpaw awakes, Shukaku lost control and is resealed again inside his Jinchuriki. In "One-Tail in Danger", Strongpaw was attacked by Strings, who used a sealing spell with the Thirteen Note to subdue Strongpaw and begin transferring Shukaku's energy into himself. Ultimately, the extraction was stopped by the intervention of the Generals of Order, who used his Gentle Fist to block the chakra points from which Shukaku was being extracted, thereby repelling the chains. In "Rescuing the Leader of the Pony-Panthers", Shukaku is extracted from Strongpaw and sealed inside the Demonic Statue. In "Star Shield", Shukaku was the only tailed beast sealed within the Demonic Statue to have not been resealed into Hepheus' controlled jinchuriki and as such, did not meet Star during his encounter with the other tailed beasts. When Star proceeded in his plan to pull all the beasts from Grogar's body in order to halt the tree form of the Ten-Tails' flower from blooming and completing the Eye of the Moon Plan, his energy rejected Star as he contained none of the tanuki's energy. Strongpaw, having been bonded with Shukaku, instead took hold and began pulling the energy himself. Through the efforts of the leader of the pony-panther, Shukaku was freed from his captivity alongside the other tailed beasts. Upon being freed, Shukaku started to recognise Star. In "Strongpaw's Plea", despite showing reluctance to Strongpaw's request for his help in sealing Hepheus, Shukaku decided to comply only for the opportunity to surpass Kurama. In "The Beginning of the End", when Hepheus ran towards them and the other tailed beasts, both Shukaku and Strongpaw conjured numerous sand bullets and were able to restrain the General of Chaos' movements. Using the opportunity to attack, the tailed beasts each took a swing at their opponent, giving sand-manipulating duo an opening to use their Desert Imperial Funeral Seal, but Strongpaw managed to escape. As Star in Tailed Beast Mode pinned Hepheus down with a tail, Shukaku and the other tailed beasts joined in and did the same to increase the damage, but the General survived their attacks and retreated to a safe distance. After quickly summoning the Demonic Statue from Grogar's body, he used his magic to repel the tailed beasts. With the tailed beasts stunned, Hepheus then proceeded to chain them up and prepared to seal them back into the statue. As Hepheus began the process on Shukaku, Strongpaw intervened, declaring his refusal to let Hepheus get his former tailed beast. Shocked at how determined Strongpaw was to protect Shukaku despite their negative past, the tanuki remembered Grain Wave's words of wisdom. From that, he also recalled Strongpaw explaining that he'd been grateful to Shukaku as it was thanks to the tanuki that Strongpaw had met Star. As Hepheus launched an attack on Strongpaw, Shukaku quickly blocked the attack for his former jinchuriki. Despite their new-found team-work, Hepheus still rebuffed their efforts and all the tailed beasts were resealed within the Demonic Statue. In "A Meeting With the Lord of Order", later, after Hepheus succeeded in becoming the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki, a reformed Star Shield managed to steal some of Shukaku's energy along with some of Gyuki's. Then Star Shield sealed the darker Kurama into a dying Star to save his life, the ram also sealed Shukaku and Gyuki energy portion into him. Inside Star's subconscious, Shukaku, Gyuki, and the darker Kurama found the young jinchūriki talking with the Lord of Order. As the other six tailed beasts manifested to join in the meeting, they all voiced their shared belief to their father that Star was the child of prophecy. In "The Eternal Nightmare Curse", as Star fought Hepheus, Shukaku aided him by lending his Magnet Nature energy, allowing Star to use a sealing spell against Hepheus. In "The End of the War", during the battle against the tyrannical deity, Shukaku and the other tailed beasts continued to support Star by giving him their combined power to overwhelm him. Ultimately, the Lord of Chaos was defeated by Star who used the Lord of Order's power to eject all the tailed beasts from him and seal him away in Discordia. After the Lord of Order and his Generals summoned both the tailed beasts and the others back to the real world, the tailed beasts began to discuss their plans for the future since they were finally free. Light and Darkness - The Shadow of Midnight In "Hunting the Predator", Shukaku and the other tailed beasts oversee Star's training using their energies. Appearances Legends: *Y - Appears and have an active role *N - Do not appears and is not mentioned directly by the characters. *B - Appears, but have a passive role or his or her appearance is implicit *M - Mentioned directly by the characters. Trivia *Shukaku is the first tailed beast to have his name revealed. *Shukaku is the only tailed beast that hasn't been shown giving his jinchūriki the characteristic red chakra-shrouds. *Shukaku is the first tailed beast to ever have a friendly relationship with a jinchuriki, with that being Grain Wave. **However, that was the only time he ever was nice to his jinchuriki, as he always haunted Grain Wave's successors, not allowing to sleep, until he meets Strongpaw. Category:Order and Chaos Saga Characters Category:Recurring Characters Category:Tailed Beasts Category:Villains